Spiral Knights - Vanaduke: Quick and easy.

Vanaduke: Quick and easy.

22 replies [Last post]

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 05:26

miojoxhl2

Legacy Username

Ok guys, here is MY way of defeating Vanaduke easily.
I'm posting this because I've seen lots of people ruin my chances of ever defeating Vanaduke at all.
Yesterday, I came with a friend who PLAYED BY THE STRATEGY and we won in just a few minutes (ok it costed me 10 energy to revive, because i tend to lag at the wrong times).

First things first, what do you need:

A guy with Shivermist.
A guy with a decent pistol, preferrably with piercing effect. (or 2 or 3 guys with decent pistols, it doesn't really matter).
Luck.
Brains.

Now, off to the strategy:

Right at start, the guy with shivermist freezes Vanaduke from a small distance, trying not to freeze all zombies with him, while the pistol guy bumps one zombie or two away to a safe spot.

Once the zombie is away, shivermist guy keeps freezing and its time for the pistol guy to join in the action.

The thing is: PISTOL GUY must NEVER face Vanaduke's front.
ALWAYS attack from the back, so the mace / falling roof wont be a problem.

With that in mind, you can go through stages 1, 3 and 5 unharmed.

For stages 2 and 4 (mask), just grab a ball as soon as vana starts walking to his sitting position and stay in front of him... Then you can land a ball as soon as the mask shows up, which gives you a good headstart.
While a guy hits the mask, another one has a ball in his hands, because as soon as the mask comes back to life, you want to throw another ball at it.

That's about it.

Yeah, it's noobish to shivermist vanaduke to death. But if you had MY ping, you would understand me.
I'm playing on a notebook, with TOUCHPAD, 3G connection and MINIMUM graphics. Don't blame me for being a noob.

Sidenotes: Shivermist guy never needs to move away from vanaduke if pistol guy keeps attacking FROM THE BACK and moving as vanaduke turns to face him.

Again, I'm writing this because I've faced Vanaduke several times with people who had no idea what they were doing.
These people often tend to:

1 - Attack vanaduke from the front, causing the mace / falling roof / ground fire problem.
2 - Kill all zombies, causing the Slag Guard problem.
3 - Stand in front of Vanaduke while he dashes / maces , causing the DEAD TEAMMATE problem.
4 - Unfreezing Vanaduke when he is about to charge the guy who is (mistakenly) walking in front of him, causing the above mentioned problem.
5 - Throw waterballs at the mask when its blue, causing the same problem.
6 - Pay no attention to shadow fire, causing the ground to be crowded with fire, leaving us nowhere to move.
7 - Waste waterballs throwing them at random spots, with no intention to hit anything.
8 - Charge at Vanaduke when he has fireballs around him as if they were somehow immune to friggin' ballz o' fire.
9 - Pay no attention to the yellow spots that mark the falling roof, causing again the dead teammate.

Yeah, maybe some of you already know all of this, but I have played with several people who DON'T and this is for them.
If you have better ideas, please post them here.
If you would like to face Vanaduke with someone who knows what he is doing and plays by the strategies agreed beforehand, add me in-game.

IGN: miojox

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 09:57

miojoxhl2

Legacy Username

Thread sinking fast. Bump.

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 10:12

Bigfootm

Hackand slash for the first

Hackand slash for the first phase. Then the rest is what you said.

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 10:32

Quandasim

i heard

i heard u can poison wanaduke and then, fire balls wont regenerate. anyone tried it? its possible kill him with swords?

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 10:35

Bigfootm

You can poison him, but once

You can poison him, but once hes unpoisened the balls come back. I dunno if they even go away.

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 10:40

caseyweederm

Legacy Username

Thanks for the guide! I won't

Thanks for the guide!
I won't be ready for Vanaduke for a little while, but when I am, I'll refer to this.

To be honest, I haven't figured out how to survive for long enough in Tier Three to reach Basil for 5* recipes.

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 11:19

miojoxhl2

Legacy Username

Thx to all for your strategy

Thx to all for your strategy replies.
Bigfootm , I'm adding you as soon as I get ingame.

Casey, is that your IGN?
IF not, add me, I might be helpful to you on your tier 3 clearance quest. I'm the shivermist guy btw xD

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 11:34

Bigfootm

I'm theeverything but zombies

I'm theeverything but zombies guy. Lol.

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 11:47

Iazarus

Legacy Username

Oh god. Just faced this

Oh god. Just faced this problem yesterday with a teammate who thought it was a brilliant idea to kill the last zombie during 5th stage.

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 13:39

Richy

I would have kicked the guy

I would have kicked the guy out of the party.

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 13:50

#10

Soulstaker

How people get to Vanaduke really fast.

I have not even got to it because right after my friends join they use the ce and crowns hack and get 5* stuff and own tier 1 and 2 and go straight at Vanaduke.

One of my friends hacked the crowns to get a Jelly Crown and i got pissed off that he won't do it legitly like others.

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 13:59

#11

Richy

Uh I would not openly say

Uh I would not openly say that. It would be your duty to report that person.

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 14:14

#12

Bigfootm

Or they can but it with real

Or they can but it with real money...

Fri, 07/29/2011 - 16:37

#13

caseyweederm

Legacy Username

I'm caseyweederman in-game,

I'm caseyweederman in-game, miojxohl2.
Don't worry about me, though. I'll keep on trucking.
My main effort now is going towards leveling my equipment up, and buying the 5* recipes in the mall.
Tier two experience seems to be shrinking so quickly... :>

Mon, 08/01/2011 - 09:11

#14

miojoxhl2

Legacy Username

Ok guys, responses: to

Ok guys, responses:

to gerryw173: While in-game press F2 and say "Player (your friend's name here) has hacked his crowns by (insert method here)".

to BigFootM: Tested the poison stuff, didn't make the ballz go away.

to caseyweederman: I'll be soon opening up a Vanaduke-token Item shop here at the forums.

to Codemister13 and Lazarus: I hate it when that happens, that's why I am always playing with people I can trust or I don't play at all.

My new story:

- Made the party;
- Friends joined;
- Connection lost;
- Got kicked back to haven;
- Connection recovered;
- Rejoined;
- Suddenly, one of the guys that were INVITED BY ME on depth 24 (A FAVOUR) decide he was the boss of everything and started commanding people, calling names and bumping mid-attack zombies into people.
- I kicked myself out of the party at the start of tier 28 (so nobody else could join them) and they died coz I was the only one with Shivermist (evil laugh).

Mon, 08/01/2011 - 09:44

#15

Axelslicer

to bigfoot

hey bigfoot whats your knight name?

Mon, 08/01/2011 - 10:52

#16

Kevinmk

Legacy Username

BigfootM lol

Mon, 08/01/2011 - 17:47

#17

BulletBrian

Legacy Username

Vanaduke is not as hard as

Vanaduke is not as hard as people make it out to be, if youve got a decent team that pays attention to all its surroundings and animations, its basically a win.

this strategy is really solid, but the problem with shivermist bombing is, is that when vanaduke manages to escape from the ice, almost all the time, it'll do a charge attack either towards bomber or a gunner, and whether or not that kills someone, it'll burn through a lot of pips considering if you get hit by the charge or the fire balls.

Phase 5, if you get everyone on the team to circle it, going either all different ways, or going the same way while gunning, vanaduke will almost never be able to land a hit, or even attempt to cause it'll just be following one target trying to land a hammer smash.

also, vanaduke really is an all gun battle except for phase 1, you could use swords but the fact that the fire balls respawn so quick, you wont really land as much hits as you'd like considering you have to constantly put them out with the water balls, therefore, the whole team should have 1 gun atleast.

keeping the zombies alive at the beginning of the battle is a must because you never want slag guards during a vanaduke battle, they abuse camera angle to the max.
you should really fight vanaduke towards either the middle of the map, or the bottom of the map
the bottom of the map might sound dumb since the camera angle isnt too favorable towards the players, but you can shoot walking up and down on the sides of vanaduke and just walk away from vanaduke if it smashes down.
if you do fight it on the bottom of the map, its better if theres 2 on each side of it.

just throwing this out there, hope it doesnt make it seem like im attacking your strategy guide because im not, im just stating some things most people who have vanaduke'd know but for people who havent vanaduke'd able to prepare themselves alittle better.

Mon, 08/01/2011 - 22:01

#18

Evilduck

I've been on a number of runs

I've been on a number of runs with people where I've outlined this exact strategy and they've failed at it. I don't know why "STAY BEHIND HIM, JEEZ" is so difficult to understand and remember, especially when I'm shouting it every ten seconds, but apparently it is. People have the lack of common sense you outlined, such as shooting at Vanaduke when he's charging or when the bomber misses a drop and causing him to become unfrozen. Come on people; engage brain, THEN click.

Mon, 08/01/2011 - 22:14

#19

Ailea

Whenever I run Vanaduke, it

Whenever I run Vanaduke, it boils down to

"Fight Vanaduke as best we can until he gets stuck on someone's corpse in phase 5" ;P

Mon, 08/01/2011 - 22:16

#20

Bigfootm

Lol. No need for teams fir

Lol. No need for teams fir me, I can easily duo/solo. (Preffer duo)

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 01:24

#21

Bluehelmet

Lol

Bullet, works well to levi the hell out of phase 2 & 4, 400 dmg w.o any bonus per slash. Anyway, a freezers not needed long as the team can kite, but yes, its a gun boss now :P. On a different note, Bullet we need to VD some more when i get back :P, cant do anything with this laptop.

IGN: Omegaspirit

Tue, 08/02/2011 - 02:10

#22

Velcro

Imo, (plans assume you aren't

Imo, (plans assume you aren't solo-ing)

During Phase 1 Vanaduke is a joke. Attacking once, shield canceling, then moving in a clockwise direction around him consistently means he just stands spinning in circles until he goes to the next phase. Another member pushes zombies into corners and kills what's left.

Phase 2. I believe that this, and Phase 4, are where players mess up the most and determine the success of killing Vanaduke. One player should be effectively designated as the water guy. He should grab a water ball and stand at Vanaduke waiting for his mask to come off then throw it once he can. He can get in one, maybe two more attacks, but then should go grab another water ball and stand within the circle created from the outer red balls and just re-splash the mask once it turns red. Rinse and repeat and you clean this stage nicely.

Phase 3. Though guns are the safest method, I've noticed with the Brandish line that you can put out one of his red balls and seemly charge attack when the gap rolls around, shield cancel, and move away before the next ball comes. Just make sure he isn't readying to do something when you go in. Another thing to note is if Vanaduke is aggro-ing you then you should try to get away from your teammates so that they aren't endangered by the attacks directed at you. I do note that some players seem to follow you though and will get hit.

Phase 4. Same strategy as Phase 2 though if players are finding it too difficult then you can grab a water ball and wait for two of the outer red balls to align and put them both out at once. With all the red balls gone he is much easier.

Phase 5. Same as Phase 3 except the charge attack plan doesn't work quite as well anymore. The only other option melee-wise here is for teammates to collectively put out red balls as quickly as possible then all go in for melee attacks. Granted though it is generally easier to just gun and dodge him, again remembering trying to make his attacks not be directed at teammates if he's aggro-ing you. This is also the stage you want to use all status vials you have in your inventory, especially Poison.

And some general notes people should realize as well:
1. Never revive with CE unless everyone is dead.
2. Only one person should revive with CE at a time, and upon being revived, they should revive the others.
3. Try to save pills until you're really low on half or fear being team wiped.
4. If Vanaduke is not aggro-ing you then it is a good idea to put out lava instead of attacking.
5. Try not to put out lava near the top of the screen as more lava up there helps to prevent new lava from spawning.
6. Be aware that water balls can put you out if you're on fire.
7. Always try to shoot one less bullet than your clip-size to avoid the lengthy reload animation.
8. Never use robots as they suck against Vanaduke anyway and run the risk of killing zombies trapped in the corners.

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Vanaduke: Quick and easy.